Posted
by
Zonk
on Friday February 16, 2007 @10:57AM
from the wise-man dept.

This past December, Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with the Talk Asia program. It was only just recently translated and (via Ars Technica), CNN is carrying the resulting commentary. Miyamoto discusses the creation of Mario, the future of the Nintendo, the problems facing the games industry today, and the 'awesomeness' of the Wii's name. "I think anyone can enjoy video games. But some people shy away from them, just by looking at the shape of the console, or they think it is complicated when they have to plug the machine into their television set. However, I think if it is something that is simple to connect and play, it can be enjoyed by anybody, especially if they can interact with the characters. We also have to think about the themes of the games. There is an abundance of themes that people are interested in, and video games have only touched on few of them."

The controller is shaped like a remote control, something everyone is familiar with, the characters are cartoons, which people of all ages can relate to, and the controls are as simple as moving your body.

America [vgcharts.org] Japan [vgcharts.org]
The American chart is pretty useless at this point in time being that there are only 2 data points, but something to take note of is that the Gamecube never had a shortage and estimates of the Wii's January sales in North America are 500,000 (as compared to the Gamecube's 64,000). The Japaneese chart pretty much needs no comments.

Well, you could always look at the following link as well. Searching the News section for Japan can give you a good look at both software and hardware sales numbers from the far east.http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7480 [gamesarefun.com]

In March we should be getting official numbers for three new systems from both sides of the Pacific. It shouldn't be too difficult at that point to look up the old GameCube numbers and make a fair comparison.

If you have any sources to validate your points, it might be good to put t

"Why would it be a bad thing to link to vgcharts? They essentially just archive Media-Create and NPD's sales charts and have some (limited) functionality to compare the data..."

Actually, IIRC the owner of the vgcharts site has admitted that he regularly "massages" the data to be "consistent" with whatever "trends" he sees. While it's not like the numbers are pulled from whole cloth, it's sufficiently unreliable that its results should be disregarded IMO.

To make games that anyone (literally) can pick up and play, and enjoy, without the crutch of violence and fancy visuals. I like fancy visuals and I do like my counterstrike, but frankly they are truly deriviative and really add nothing truly new over their predecessors. It seems that to use less graphic power and not use the dramatic tension that violence provides requires the kind of out of the box thinking that this guy brings to the table. Games are supposed to be fun, they really are toys, (even the PS3 and 360). That's why you buy them. Those two systems don't have the mass appeal that the Wii is getting by sticking to it's path. And at the Wii's price... many people will get one fix on their 360 pr PS3 and the other with the Wii.
In the end, you can have all the violent viseo games you want, but if you really just want fun games that you can play with anyone, it's much harder to do. This guy really deserves to be called a genius.

To make games that anyone (literally) can pick up and play, and enjoy, without the crutch of violence and fancy visuals.

They also trade off depth for a shallow learnign curve. Which means after a couple of sessions, the game is stale. Niche games with depth like FF:tactics can keep a interested gamer in it for months or even years while Rayman rabbits got old about the 2nd hour. Ditto with the wii sports. Zelda is the only exception out of the launch titles and even then is often refered to as tedious.

Trauma Center for the Wii had a relatively easy learning curve but a lot of depth IMO. You really needed to plan and strategize to have a shot at even beating the later challenges, let along getting anything above a "C" ranking.

Easy to pick up does not imply lack of depth. Games like Tetris or Mario Kart (and even Wii Sports, to a certain degree) are very easy to pick up and to learn. They have simple rules, but these rules result in deep gameplay.If you've only played Wii Sports for two hours, you haven't even scratched the surface. Did you know that you can slice the ball in Wii Tennis? Or that you can make uppercuts in Wii Boxing? Thinking that you've seen Wii Boxing after two hours is like thinking that you're a pro bowler aft

Easy to pick up does not imply lack of depth. Games like Tetris or Mario Kart (and even Wii Sports, to a certain degree) are very easy to pick up and to learn. They have simple rules, but these rules result in deep gameplay.If you've only played Wii Sports for two hours, you haven't even scratched the surface. Did you know that you can slice the ball in Wii Tennis? Or that you can make uppercuts in Wii Boxing? Thinking that you've seen Wii Boxing after two hours is like thinking that you're a pro bowler aft

They do not seem to be, as I said. Despite having been playing it since the Wii came out, somebody who had never played it before, but does bowl in real life, was competitive right from the start, when "normal" people don't stand a chance against me.

Even wii boxing, the vetrans can be taken by the noob

Totally wrong. I'm guessing you really haven't played it more than two hours. The only person I know who can compete with me in Wii Boxing is my brothe

Again, from my experience with wii sports. It is shallow. The guy who owns the wii and has been playing with it for weeks was taken down soundly by me in boxing. The bowling is fairly limited and once you get the hang of the controls it's a fairly shallow bit, we usually have 7 or 8 people over at my friends house at any given time. All our scores in bowling are about the same. Despite some of us playing it a lot more and some of us being hardcore gamers. Anyone who has had some time with wii sports will re

Miyamoto is still a luminary of game design, and I look forward to his future projects. Wii Sports is still incredibly popular (it just passed a million units sold in Japan, where it is not a pack in), and people are still waiting in line to buy units here in the US. Twilight Princess is an excellent game, though not having tried the GC version I can't really speak on it being more immersive than using a controller. I still play my Wii whenever I can find time, as does everyone I know who has one. In addition to Wii Sports, games like Wario Ware, Rayman, and Excite Truck continue to be a great deal of fun, and I still haven't had time to start on Trauma Center due to playing the other games. Add in the virtual console and a long list of games I want there, and the Wii has an amazing lineup already, and enough to keep someone who doesn't spend there whole life playing video games busy for some time to come. Whenever the NPD numbers for Jan come out, I think we will see that the Wii is continuing to dominate console sales, given that stores can't seem to keep them on the shelves for more than a few minutes at a time.

As far as Miyamoto and Nintendo at large being able to access new markets, my mother has purchased both a DS and a Wii in the last 3 months. She wouldn't even allow my brother and I to have a NES when we were growing up, so that's a pretty big shift for her, largely due to a fresh look at game design being encouraged by Nintendo.

Twilight Princess is an excellent game, though not having tried the GC version I can't really speak on it being more immersive than using a controller.

I assume the GC version handles much the same as Ocarina or Wind Waker. In which case I love the Wiimote for aiming - especially when Spider-Maning through the sky city with dual hookshots - and I could never go back to an analogue stick for that, but shaking the nunchuck for the spin attack, or shoving it for the shield charge, that doesn't quite work.

And you know better than anybody almost that in your industry a single game can revolutionize the entire gaming industry -- and you experienced that with Super Mario Brothers which invented the side scrolling adventure.

Wrong. SMB is obviously not an adventure, it is a platformer; but it is not the first side scrolling platformer either, far from it. Rock-Ola's Jump Bug was the first, 4 years before SMB.

Whenever I see a reminiscence about fun, yet somewhat dated PC games,
the same group of popular gems like X-COM, Fallout, Star Control II,
and Syndicate get the most attention. During these conversations, I
always bring up a small lost gem, but very few have heard of it and
even fewer have played it. This diamond in the rough? Rocket
Science's "Rocket Jockey".

Published by SegaSoft back in 1997, Rocket Jockey lived a short life
between being too powerful for some machines and yet incompatible with
next

The rocket is controlled by leaning; left or right and you drift in that direction. Up or down were the same, though there wasn't much of a height radius (rockets only went, at most, ten feet from the ground, just enough to ram an opponent off rocket). This basic guidance could be controlled with the Wiimote, with emphasis based on increasing the angle the Wiimote is bent. Being a PC game, speed and launching and releasing the grapples (left and right) were all keyboard based. Velocity (speed, braking) coul

Ok, I'll bite. What is a "sailboat" in this context? Never heard that word used the way you are using it. And I couldn't find it in any lingo dictionary.

Little Girl: Wow. It's a schooner.Willam Black: Ha ha ha ha. You dumb bastard. It's not a schooner... it's a Sailboat.Little Boy: A schooner is a sailboat stupid head.Willam Black: You know what, there is NO Easter Bunny! Over there, that's just a guy in a suit!

In the movie a character named Willam tries throughout the movie to see one of those "3D Pictures" (where you make it out of focus and see a 3d scene http://www.magiceye.com/ [magiceye.com] ). The picture he is trying to see is of a Sailboat (or as a kid points out in the movie, a "Schooner").

So, basically, the poster is saying that the original post looks like a huge jumbly mess.

Being intimidated and being a moron are two very different things... Maybe I'm the only person in the world who has noticed this but many people refuse to learn how to drive a standard because it "seems" too complicated.

I don't know if it has always been this way but most adults today are afraid to attempt anything where they feel they will not be instantly successful.

Standard shift -does- add complexity to a vehicle. For most people, this added complexity is completely unwelcome.

I drive stick and love it. I refuse to drive an automatic. But I -get- something from it. More control. These people don't get anything from it, and it would take them time and effort to learn, for nothing.

And yes, most adults shy away from things they are certain to fail at on their first try. There's SO many other things to do that don't involve failure that it's not a big surprise to me.

Nintendo is aiming at this market of people. They are making games that are easy and fun to learn and play, and making the console simple enough that they won't be scared of all the learning involved in just turning it on the first time. (Oddly, the sensor bar is against this, and so are the GC ports on the side. They are, thankfully, hidden until you look for them, though.)

My mom keeps asking to come over and play the 91-pin bowling game. Her previous video game experience includes Pac Man, atari 2600 pinball, and Space Invaders. Oh, and the cheezy games on Reflexive.net, also. They've already snared 1 non-gamer in my household. My sister and her friend have asked to play the boxing game to work out their arms, also. They left exhausted the first time they tried that... Haven't been back, though.

It's working for them. Now they need to make more of the WiiSports-type games, and quickly! WiiPlay is NOT like it at all. I'm very disappointed.

These people don't get anything from it, and it would take them time and effort to learn, for nothing.

On the contrary, it would be better for everyone to learn how to drive on a manual transmission.

I'm not saying that everyone should be required to drive manual transmissions, that we outlaw automatics. But if you learn to drive on a manual, you're probably going to be a better driver.

Why? Because automatics and CVTs are reactionary; you do something, and then the transmission adjusts to what you just did. Manuals are anticipatory, you decide in advance of what you want to, and then shift to bring that outcome about.

It's the difference between some mushhead in an SUV braking all the way through a turn, and someone in an S2000 slowing and downshifting before the turn, and then accelerating out of it and upshifting. The latter driver had to be looking ahead, thinking of what he was going to do before the turn came up. Learning how to drive with that mindset makes you a more anticipatory driver, even if you never drive another manual again.

I agree completely. I like having control over my vehicle. Active torque control, Steering assist, automatic transmissions. Cars are now point and shoot. Making it easier and easier for the driver to not concern themselves and get on the phone, read a magazine (a big nerve there), and other things.

I think this thread is easily related to the discussion on the Wii controls. I feel much more in control when I'm playing the Wii. For much the same reason that people like having the steering wheel for raci

People like being in control. And the standard controller is essentially dead. Standard being the Wii controller and automatic being the game pad.

I beg to differ, I've found most of the implementations of control via the Wii remote sloppy at best. If anything the Wii remote is the automatic here... it relies heavy on computer control to interpret user intent so a heavily filtered set of data points is recognized to trigger action A rather then button A triggers Action A. It's a less complex system for the u

I wrote a whole long story about my father and a luxury car, then realized it had -nothing- to do with what you said. -sigh- Anyhow...I don't have facts to say whether stick or manual drivers are better drivers, but as for 'having to look ahead'... I think you give people too much credit. It's not long before shifting and braking are both automatic responses to what the driver wants to do. Both people are looking/thinking the same distance ahead. But the S2000 driver has to deal with the stick and cl

I have had many people ask why I use the auto-stick to down-shift before corners in my G6 GT and I have to explain the concept of using downshifting to assist slowing the car as well as aiding my acceleration out of (and through) the corner). In a front-wheel drive, I'd rather have my foot on the gas through the corner than on the brakes.

Oh my, where did you learn to drive? Are you seriously suggesting that using the brakes is better than using the engine brake? I actually have a friend who thought that, too. Then he made a trip to the Swiss alps. Overheated this brakes when driving down, and promptly drove straight through a bend. Fortunately, he himself didn't suffer any damages:-)

Standard shift -does- add complexity to a vehicle. For most people, this added complexity is completely unwelcome.

Exactly correct. If you've ever seen those "'s Worst Driver" shows which get played on things like Discovery, you get to see prime examples of this.

Driving a manual-shift transmission involves having all four limbs, simultaneously doing different things in concert so it all works. Some people can barely focus on steering and handling gas/brake with a single foot. (I don't mean this to be elit

I refuse to learn to drive stick because it *is* more complicated and adds no value for me. I have no problem attempting and failing, but I won't bother attempting if there is no possible gain. I think that is the reason most people don't drive manual.

Lots of benefits, one of the most obvious from the driving perspective is much better acceleration -- manual cars can shift up faster and easier than automatics do (you don't need to wait for the engine to go into overdrive before it decides to shift). Another is less damage to your transmission through normal driving and less expensive transmission repairs should you need.It is also cool/useful to shift down and use the shift as a breaking/speed-control device when driving in places like indoor parking lot

Maybe I'm the only person in the world who has noticed this but many people refuse to learn how to drive a standard because it "seems" too complicated.

I refuse to learn how to drive standard because a) I work for a living, b) value my time off, and c) don't see how paying money and spending time to learn how to drive something I currently don't need to drive would be productive.

I don't know how things are where you live, but over here, cars with automatic transmission typically sell at $1000 more than the exact same model with manual transmission. I learned to drive with stick in less than a day, and it saved me $1000 on my car. I bet you have a wonderfully paying job to value your time off at more than $1000 a day.

I don't see how paying a lot of money to get a car that doesn't require a single day of training

Driving a stick can be more of a hassle than an automatic. I really hate my stick shift in stop-and-go traffic, and I think that, spread over 5 years, $1000 to avoid the hassle of having to deal with a stick and clutch are a good bargain.

Then again, I feel like driving is a pain altogether. I prefer public transit.

Where I live (Switzerland), everyone learns how to drive with a stick. You can't drive with a stick, you don't drive at all. Personally, I don't have an issue with automatic transmission, but calling manual gear shifting "a hassle" is a bit much. After a few days, you don't even think about it anymore.Agree about public transport, though. You get from point A to point B while actually being able to do something productive, other than swearing at those retarded sunday drivers who constantly get in your way :

Driving a stick shift car can be fun, and it can save money on a car purchase. However if you're buying a new car, money isn't your top priority to begin with. If money is that big of an issue, you're probably looking at used cars, and there the price difference is likely to be a lot less than $1000.Also, as someone else responded, it is not about the one day of learning how to drive stick shift cars. If you live somewhere where you do lots of stop and go traffic, stick shifts can get annoying. Even wor

I don't know how things are where you live, but over here, cars with automatic transmission typically sell at $1000 more than the exact same model with manual transmission.

In the US, many, perhaps most cars above the economy level are not available with a manual transmission. In many cases when they do offer an automatic it's only with the smaller engine option. Almost all vans, trucks, and SUVs are automatic only. As far as I know, the Dodge Viper and Subaru Impreza WRX STI are the only vehicles sold in

You often pay the $1000 back a few times over to a mechanic when you need to replace your clutch. You dont' wear otu a automatic transmission as much because it switches gear much more smoothly then a human can.

"Many people" I assume refers to Americans, because almost all UK driving lessons are in cars with manual gears. It's not something you have to take extra time to learn, after already having learnt in an automatic (like some of the replies to your post suggested) instead nearly everyone learns to drive in a manual from the start.

I'm guessing you've never actually talked to a woman, or even a non-geeky man...

Maybe I'm unique, but I have helped dozens of people set up their DVD players, Surround Sound Systems, and videogame systems; just because they're intimidated when looking at dozens of inputs of various shapes and sizes on the back of their TV does not mean that they have no interest in gaming.

The Wii is easily one of the more complex Nintendo systems to set up--if not the most complex. Not only do you have to plug something into the TV at the back, but you also have to position, align, and affix the sensor bar. God help you if you don't have a table edge to line it up with! Then there's the memory card--perhaps it was just my console, but the SD card didn't seem to want to "click" into place properly. That threw me for a serious loop--I had to check twice if I wasn't putting it in upside-down. T

Semi OT: Good design isn't about user intelligence, it's about user interest level. If you hand somebody that is really interested in gaming a machine that requires an OS install, they'll go through the steps to follow the process. If you hand that same machine to somebody who doesn't care much, they'll lose interest rather quickly and skip it. Intelligence doesn't factor into it.

This is something that applies to... well... just about ANYTHING you present to other people. I could, for example, convert this post to ROT-13. You're smart, you could decode it, right? I doubt you would, though. I certainly think most people here wouldn't bother, anyway. It isn't because you and everybody else here are incapable of translating it, it's because I would have made a bad design choice while trying to communicate my views with you. It wouldn't be very accurate of me to say that anybody who skipped my post is 'a moron'. If anything, I'd be the moron for doing something like that and expecting anybody to invest the time.

Personally, after finishing Zelda I started to play Red Steel which is not a particularly great game but is far better than the reviews would lead you to believe; from that I moved onto trauma center which is an enjoyable little game. Wii Sports still gets a lot of play at "parties" but Rayman seems to have been abandoned in favour of Wario Ware...

We have Sonic and SSX comming up which I'm a little optimistic about... Mario Party 8 comes out in March which will (likely) replace Wario Ware at parties

Personally, after finishing Zelda I started to play Red Steel which is not a particularly great game but is far better than the reviews would lead you to believe; from that I moved onto trauma center which is an enjoyable little game. Wii Sports still gets a lot of play at "parties" but Rayman seems to have been abandoned in favour of Wario Ware...

I largely agree. Red Steel isn't very polished, but on the important matter -- is it fun to play? -- it does very well. Most swordfighting games fail in that blocking requires an insane reaction time, but in Red Steel, it's an instinctual, intuitive motion. And believe me, you have not lived until you've made the leader of a large group surrender. (clank clank ca-clank-clank-clank as they drop their weapons:-P ) I sold Zelda and Rayman, but kept Red Steel. Zelda was of course very fun, but has very low replay value. (No, hunting down pieces of heart does not count as replay value.) Rayman was fun too, but lost its appeal quickly. People actually didn't even like it as a party game. To unlock the special shootout modes, you had to do a ton of easy shootouts -- just not worth it.

Yeah. I'm still pissed about the NES, too. That god damned D-Pad is never going to fit anything other than Mario Bros. What the hell was I thinking? It just doesn't work very well in reality, and the real innovative games will never hit the shelves.

360: over a year of great games. Wii: pretty much the launch lineup and a few newer games which missed launch. Nintendo actually only sent out the online dev kits a few weeks ago. Anyway, in Europe, we just got Excite Truck, which I love. So I'm happy for now:-)

"What exactly are people doing with their Wii? People can't possibly still be playing WiiSports."

I'm still playing Wii Sports every day, mostly doing a quickie fitness test and maybe a game or two of bowling or tennis. Outside of that, my family also gets in games of ExciteTruck, WarioWare, and Wii Play (which is decent for a $10 disc), along with Super Mario Bros. on the Virtual Console.

I admit it's a little light at the moment, but Sonic and the Secret Rings and SSX: Blur are coming within the next few w

I remember those toys you would desperately want when you were a kid for Christmas and they were a blast Christmas day when you finally got them. And then a few days later they were abandoned off in some closet or corner after you realized you were dumb to fall for the marketing hype.
What exactly are people doing with their Wii? People can't possibly still be playing WiiSports.
Hmm, this got modded flame bait for some reason, but I think its a legit point

I remember those toys you would desperately want when you were a kid for Christmas and they were a blast Christmas day when you finally got them. And then a few days later they were abandoned off in some closet or corner after you realized you were dumb to fall for the marketing hype. What exactly are people doing with their Wii? People can't possibly still be playing WiiSports.

Hmm, this got modded flame bait for some reason, but I think its a legit point

What exactly are people doing with their Wii? People can't possibly still be playing WiiSports.

I play the training mode and a few rounds of Wii Boxing almost every evening. I'm also only about 25 hours into Zelda - I try to make enough time to play a few hours every few days. In europe, we just got Excite Truck, which I absolutely love - it's Mario Kart with trucks, twice the speed and huge jumps. It's an incredibly pity that there's no four-player mode.

Personally I prefer the gameplay in for instance Madden on the Wii to any sports game on any other console.

Agreed. However they spent alot of time refining the motion controls (which work wonderfully), and not enough on the pointer. Why is it wonky even in menus or picking a play? I don't get it, but I love the ability to change my guy on the line to a specific player by pointing rather than cycling through them (when it works). It's not even a fault of the remote, just (IMHO not enough attention or tim

I have a Wii, and I love it to bits. I've been playing it a fair amount. I also have a PS3. I haven't gotten a game for it yet, because none of them look interesting.

I have more than one 60+ character on World of Warcraft. I own a Sega Genesis+Sega CD, SNES, 3DO, Saturn, PS1, PS2, and N64. I have something in excess of 200 various games for PC and Mac. I have written my own video games for my own amusement, I have done major revision work on one of the roguelike variants, I've contributed code to Angband (which was even in the official distribution for a whole sub-release before the entire spell system got converted to lua!), and I probably spend in excess of twenty hours a week playing video games. I have published papers (admittedly, not peer-reviewed) on game design and usability.

And yet, I think the Wii is clearly well-suited to people like me.

So, is the problem that, having an advanced understanding of video games, I am not a person with only a basic understanding, who would naturally prefer the PS3?

Seems to me that the Wii is a much better machine for [b]playing games[/b] than either of the competitors. Yes, they have very impressive graphics. The Wii has a controller which is flat out better for playing games. Since I'm interested in playing games, not watching photorealistic cut scenes, playing movies, or otherwise doing things which are not "playing games", the Wii is by far the best of the current options.

I also have a PS3. I haven't gotten a game for it yet, because none of them look interesting. [...] Since I'm interested in playing games, not watching photorealistic cut scenes, playing movies, or otherwise doing things which are not "playing games", the Wii is by far the best of the current options.

This is so outlandish I fear you must be some sort of troll (and if so, congratulations, you got me).

What sort of idiot would spend $600 on a console and never use it? Did you even open the box? I could und

People will buy it in expectation of games to come. I have a $750 GC for EB game. This is the for the PS3, some accesories and MGS4 when it comes out. Some people get it earlier to allow them to watch blu ray. MGS4, FFxiii, GT:HD are all motivations for me to get the machines as well as my 80 game back library of sony Ps2/Ps1 titles.

Isn't it a little early in the console's life span to be making calls like that?
Twilight Princess is probably one of the best adventure games out there, if not THE best. Also, the Wii has the potential to be the perfect FPS machine, and as developers learn to develop for the Wii remote I am sure we will see some incredible FPS titles hit the Wii.
Your argument is flimsy at best!

Please play platform before speaking. Tacked on controls? Have you ever used a Nintendo controller? Gamecube was the easiest to hold off all 3 of the last generation, I know this because when my tendons acted up it was the only one I could play for any length of time. Nintendo has done wonderful things with ergonomics compared to MS and Sony which are ok, but a little awkward if you examine wrist rotation and thumb placement.Now let me examine how well it is integrated with the system. Well rotating th

Let me guess: You're six years old? Did daddy leave his computer running or something? Fun fact: "Mature" games are actually targeted at teens. Another fun fact: Children prefer the 360 and the PS3 over the Wii.

Yes, some of the controls of the launch games feel tacked-on - Zelda could have done more with it, for example. However, even in this state, they are simply better than comparable traditional control schemes. Twilight Princess on the Wii quite simply controls much better than Wind Waker.

Furthermore, claiming that the dual shock provides better control for FPS than the Wii remote is, quite simply, utterly absurd.

That statement is so poorly considered I felt compelled. . . nay, obligated. . . to register so that I could respond to it.

I am 30 years old. I cut my gaming teeth with games like Silent Service for the Commodore 64. I've owned so many gaming systems I shudder to think about it. The Wii is on that list. The 360 and PS3 are not (yet). I've seen no reason to shell out those kind of bucks for a system that I have little interest in at this point. When the price comes down and the libraries interest me,

Isn't the point of any video game pretending to be something we aren't? Whether it's a soldier, a racer, a hedgehog, a fat plumber, a surgeon, a guitar master, or a field marshal; all video games place us in positions we do not normally have access to. That's the appeal of video games.Like any other media each genre (and any particular sub-category or instance thereof) will appeal to some gamers more than others. You can note that you do not agree with his taste in video games, but insinuating that his stan

Miyamoto use to be absolutely godlike in his ability to come up with enduring gameplay elements in his games. It is so sad to see him now pretty much just towing the Nintendo line

It's pretty difficult to be a rebel when you are the one in authority.

As Miyamoto says, he's no longer a Nintendo employee. He's on the board of directors. He's also the head of EAD.

He's not "toeing Nintendo's line", Nintendo's toeing his line. I don't think some people realize how powerful he is. He has nearly as much authority on paper as Iwata and probably more in practice, because CEO's come and go but the loss of Miyamoto would be devastating to the company. He is not just a game designer. He is one of Nintendo's top executives, and he oversees all game development for the entire company as well as most hardware development.

Actually, the only thing weird about those controllers was how they looked.The N64 controller introduced a fair number of concepts we still see in controllers today. The Analog Stick and the Trigger being the principle ones. Certainly they were both elements of generations of joysticks that came before, but not since the Atari days had anyone bothered to consider them useful. Nintendo saw that with the advent of 3D games the analog stick would be imperative, and did something about it.

The Gamecube controller, though better, has those wacky buttons equally sized ones are better

No, they're not. These buttons are pure genius: You don't need to remember their names. If a game tells you to press "X", it's always shown using the shape, size and color of the button itself, which instantly makes it obvious which button is meant. I'm still not always sure which button is "x" and which is"triangle" on the PS[1|2|P]. Nintendo got this right.

It amazes me that some people who could remember the SNES button layout or other extemely complex things (like how to frickin code) say they can't remember the trianglel, circle, X, square layout of the dual shock.

The PS signs simply don't make sense. The letters make sense. They're from right to left, BA is bottom, YX top. And as I said, the Cube buttons also have distinctive forms, which makes it dead simple to figure out which one the game is talking about.

The N64 controller was pure genius. When it came out, Nintendo probably wasn't sure whether the analog stick would work out. So they created a controller that could both be used like a traditional controller, or like a controller with an analog stick, or like a controller with two directional elements, thus creating a controller that was backwards- and forwards-compatible. This controller works with sidescrollers and beat-em-ups as well as it does with 3D jump-n-runs or FPSs.And apart from the Xbox S, the G

Miyamoto use to be absolutely godlike in his ability to come up with enduring gameplay elements in his games. It is so sad to see him now pretty much just towing the Nintendo line as the company tries to market old technology with a pointer tack on.

Miyamoto is "toeing the company line"? No, my friend; Miyamoto is the company line. Have you never heard of the Miyahon Check?

If you don't like it, you don't like it. You can easily recoup most, if not all, of your money by reselling. They're still hard to get, the price is low. If you put it on "buy it now" on ebay for $200, you'll have it sold within the hour.

I'll bite, then. I have a Wii (camped for it with my 10 year old daughter). I spent more time in the line than I have playing the system. I have zelda, monkey ball, and (of course) sports.

I bought monkey ball for the GC on the day that system launched and still play it on occasion. The Wii version, using the new controller, was a royal PITA. Sports was moderately fun. Zelda pissed me off becuase it looked worse than windwaker (trying to do realistic instead of stylized on underpowered hardware is a

*Hearty Applause*That took guts, and for that you deserve some recognition.

It's completely ridiculous to assume that everyone in this world is going to enjoy the Wii. It should come as no surprise that people are going to have reactions outside of "Wow!".

However, it is only very rarely that anyone voices a dissenting viewpoint here concerning the Wii that does not hide themselves as an AC. Rarer still is the AC post that seems to have any connection to reality.

Honestly, I use my Wii pretty much Daily, and have for quite a while. I don't always play games on, it, but it is quickly replacing my computer for casual tasks like checking my hotmail, the weather and news. Also WiiToob and 'Finetune' are great for Wii's version of Opera.

The games are fun, and I have a healthy collection already of both Wii, and VC games which I think is important. Sometimes I want to play a game, but simply don't have the energy for something like Rayman, or Warioware so I fire up Stre

I would have preferred Twilight Princess to have the Wind Waker graphics, too. The graphics are a total fan service. People wanted them, and they got them. The game itself, however, is better than Wind Waker. Give it a try.

I am fully willing to accept the possible reality that there are Wii owners who are not satisfied, are bored, or who think the controller isn't all it is cracked up to be.However, I am not willing to accept these possibilities when the only indication of them is an anonymous poster without sources saying it is so without even an anecdote of his own.

If there is an issue with the Wii on the scale many ACs claim, surely it should be simple enough for them to bring sources from message boards, actual news artic

Everyone thought the DS would be gimmicky. Two screens? Stylus? Microphone? How weird!

But it has turned out to be a great system with some of the more innovative games of the last decade: Nintendogs, Kirby Canvas Curse, Brain Age, WarioWare Touched (tons better than the original), to name a few. I was pleasantly surprised, after all the ho-hum Nintendo titles for the Game Cube.